The research project sets out to analyze the training of Pietro da Cortona in the field of architecture, and the beginning of his activity as an architect in association with the patronage of the cardinal Francesco Barberini and his circle of scholars and antiquarians, in which Cassiano Dal Pozzo, the cardinal’s secretary, was an outstanding figure. The Dal Pozzo collection and paper museum can be taken as a starting point for examination of the sources utilized by Pietro (works and projects of the masters of the 16th century, in particular of Michelangelo; drawings of ancient works; treatises, etc.) to develop his own architectural language. The main focus of the study will be the Album of drawings conserved in the archives of the CCA, recording architectural details (in particular from buildings in Rome by Michelangelo) and Roman monuments after originals by Pietro da Cortona.

Chiara Baglione is a post-doctoral fellow and teaching assistant at the Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia. She earned a Degree in Architecture (supervisor Prof. Giorgio Ciucci) and a Ph.D. in the History of Architecture and Urban Design at the Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia, with a dissertation entitled “Pietro da Cortona, Alessandro VII e la chiesa di Santa Maria in via Lata a Roma” (supervisors Prof. Howard Burns and Prof. Giovanna Curcio). Chiara Baglione is the author of essays and articles on Pietro da Cortona as an architect; on Italian architecture between the two world wars, in particular on the work of Giuseppe Terragni; and on contemporary European and Japanese architecture. She also coordinates a research group working on the architect Pietro Lingeri and the Milanese professional milieu from the 1920s to the 1960s.